Over the summer of 2020, the United States saw the largest protest mobilizations after the police murder of George Floyd. Given the impending elections, pundits soon sought to predict what the effects of the uprising would be on the 2020 General Election. This panel takes a comparative and historically informed approach to the question of the relationship between protest politics and elections. Thinking the US alongside contexts in Africa, South Asia and Latin America, panelists will consider the various ways in which electoral politics has spurred wider popular mobilization and explore whether and how demands on the streets are incorporated into electoral frameworks.

Speakers include Nusrat Sabina Chowdhury (Amherst College), Yanilda María González (Harvard Kennedy School), Maurice Mitchell (Working Families Party), and Jeffrey Paller (University of San Francisco). 3CT fellow Adom Getachew will moderate the conversation.

This is the first in a series of three virtual teach-ins that consider questions of democratic representation and participation as we approach—and then reflect on—the US elections in November 2020. These events present local, national, and global perspectives in an effort to foster conversations that go beyond punditry in critiquing and responding to the current moment.